


Stars are Crystal Lights

by Iki_teru



Series: In the litany of your name [4]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, because i am predictable and tropes, excessive cuddling in bed, gratuitous word count, mostly just feelings because feelings, plot in the vaguest sense, set during first game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6454744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iki_teru/pseuds/Iki_teru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>alt title: Yuffie and the very not good, down right rotten night followed by the pretty friggen sweet day.<br/>It's Yuffie's birthday! and while the hours leading up to it may be fraught with peril ie: having to convince Leon to share his bed because Aerith gets a little punchy in her sleep, the day itself is promising to be full of fun and presents galore!<br/>Except.... Leon has been missing all day. Not that she cares, it's just dumb ol' Leon. She has plenty of presents and people who actually love her and a lonely rooftop to retreat to. At least, she has a lonely rooftop until someone comes barging in. Or..err.. on...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars are Crystal Lights

**Author's Note:**

> Because I am predictable: have more Leon/Yuffie. Entirely self edited, con-crit welcome and appreciated, see end of story for actual notes. <3

_ Cause you color me clear _

_ Now, what you, what  you waiting for? _

_ \--Backyard (of Monsters and Men) _

 

 

 

Yuffie woke herself up. Or rather, Yuffie put her toe through the hole in her blanket and the subsequent sound of  _ riiiiip _ as she stretched her leg and thus, the hole, woke her up.

 

It was one of the saddest things that had happened to her in....well a while. Surprisingly. Life had been good. Leon was amazingly not as much of an ass as they both knew he could be. Patrols around Traverse Town had been fairly quiet and low key since Sora really got going on the heartless out in the elsewhere. There had been much less snapping and snarling in her day to day existence with Leon and she had- dare she say it- discovered he was in possession of a sense of humor.

 

It was a dry sense of humor and he still didn't appreciate any of  _ her  _ jokes, the bastard. But there had been nights; her balancing across the peaked roof of one building or another, him a story down below and they didn't have to quite shout at one another- the air was still enough that a firm voice reached-  and he had startled a laugh out of her. Over what she couldn't say now, startled her enough that her footing had slipped and she had almost gone careening down, catching herself at the last minute on the drainage pipe and slicing her hand open on the edge. She stared down at him, heart in her throat from her tumble but smile still firmly planted on her face because  _ Leon told a joke. _

 

Only he hadn't looked as amused anymore. Had gone white when her foot twisted and she had sworn, dropping  _ Sir Stabby,  _ her over-sized shuriken, to clatter off the roof before her and free up both her hands. Leon had shifted and looked like he was prepared to catch her if she had fallen; and wouldn't  _ that _ have been a sight? The two of them a jumble of limbs on the ground of the Second District, probably consisting more of bruises than actual people stuff.

 

Yuffie had pulled herself back up on the roof, swiping the blood welling in the palm of her hand across her thigh thoughtlessly. "That stings like a bitch," she complained, flexing her hand. It was superficial and she fished a strip of bandage out, winding it around her palm. It could wait until they got home for a healing. She leaned over, carefully, asking for Leon to pass  _ Sir Stabbity  _ back to her.

 

He hesitated, fingering one of the blades and not looking up at her. "Maybe you should come down here and walk with me for a while," he had said, voice low and heavy with something that she wasn't comprehending.

 

She shrugged, dropping down easily. "Whatever floats your boat." He had handed her weapon back then, pausing to double check her wrap job on her hand and tsk in disapproval, unwinding the cloth to rewrap it to his satisfaction (and yeah okay, it was a much better job than what she had done and was actually staunching the bleeding now instead of just absorbing.) He leaned over farther, she had a great view of the back of his jacket and the stitched on red wings as the warm leather of his glove brushed the strip of drying blood on the side of her leg where she had swiped her hand moments ago.

 

Neither of them said anything.

 

Leon moved on after that, changing the subject and leaving Yuffie weirded out enough that she hadn't bothered to ask about it.

#

It all came back to her now, laying in her bed and shivering with her scrap of blanket. She had known the blanket was on its last leg, threadbare was a generous term for it and there had been a teeny hole she noticed months ago- always meaning to patch it up before it got to this point but she just...forgot. Definitely the worst thing that has happened in quite a while (and the other thing,the thing with the hand wasn't  bad it was just  _ weird  _ and she had liked that, that the worse thing to happen was something simple and a little awkward and now her blanket had gone and ruined it all.)

 

She could try to squeeze in with Aerith, she supposed. But Aerith still had nightmares like nobody's business- remnants of her death when she was the other Aerith plaguing her sleep. Yufife didn't blame her, she had her own share of nightmares, but she didn't throw elbows nearly as much and no. Vestigial warmth was not worth waking up to a black eye. She wrapped the remnants of her blanket around her, it now made for a slightly ineffective poncho, and padded out of the room on near silent feet.

 

Cid was in his preferred recliner, claiming a bad back and inability to sleep on those damn cots. Yuffie paused, a wraith the hallway, watching him snore in the darkness and marveling that he had yet to slide out of that chair. Maybe that's why he was so cranky, even in this preferred position he couldn't be comfortable, not really.

 

There was always the couch. It wasn't the most uncomfortable piece of furniture that they owned (had salvaged, like everything else in their lives.) but it had the great downside of being  very near Cid and his  very loud snoring. Just then Cid snorted and kicked the volume up a notch, helpfully making up Yuffie's mind for her. It really only left her one option.

 

She toed her way over to the other bedroom, the one that was ostensibly the "boys" room, but with Cloud having fled the coop and Cid suffering Old Man's Disease, it had fallen into the sole province of Leon. The unused beds had long ago been handed out to other refugees in need, more the pity on night's like tonight, and the extra space in the room had become the collective gathering place for everyone's wardrobe and extra weaponry (of which there was more than a little.) Which left just the thin cot Leon claimed wedged against the far wall. He was out tonight on a solo patrol, it was calm enough that there was no point in  _ both _ of them losing sleep, and his bed lay empty and inviting. Yuffie managed to dredge up a smile even as the peculiar fatigue that comes from interrupted sleep stole over her.

 

She crawled into the bed, feeling a tickle of memory of doing this before, long ago when she was smaller and Aerith's nightmares were worse. There had been no good way to help Aerith, waking her up only left her lying still and staring up at the ceiling, tears leaking from the corner of her eyes, but leaving her asleep meant having to listen to the anguished cries. There were many a night Yuffie had made a similar trek to this room, sleepily pushing Leon (Squall, then, it was before he was broken) over to crawl in the space he vacated.

 

Yuffie had enough time to think  _ I should have brought my own pillow _ and  _ this one smells like Leon _ before sleep claimed her again.

 

However much time had passed wasn't enough when someone started shaking her shoulder, hissing her name against her ear. Yuffie grumbled, rolling away from the mean person shape and curling tighter around the pillow she had been spooning. But the person wouldn't stop shaking her and she was just so  _ tired _ . She finally flopped over in defeat, facing the darkened form of Leon. There was just enough light leaking in from the hallway for her to make out his general shape, the fall of his hair and the line of his shoulders.

 

"You're in my bed," he growled. Part of her wanted to snap back  _ no shit _ but the rest of her, the part that appreciated how warm this bed was and how far removed it was from the nonsense of her own bed ( _ his  _ blanket was still whole) knew that would be the quickest way to end up on the cold floor.

 

Instead she settled for a sound halfway between a whine and a sob. "My blanket broke," she muttered, digging the tattered remains out from beneath her shoulder as exhibit a. "And Aerith is all elbows." Which okay that wasn't fair as she didn't give Aerith a chance to be elbows tonight, but past experience said Yuffie had enough sense to safely assume elbows would happen. "And," she whined, something else just coming to her in the hazy early morning. "it's my birthday."

 

She heard him sigh, saw him raise a hand to his face and knew he was pinching the bridge of his nose in that exasperated way that meant he was trying not to strangle her. "It is not."

 

It was, or at least it was the Traverse Town birthday. When they had all been here long enough to teeter towards the realization of  _ permanent _ and had still been more whole instead of the fractured little group they were now, Aerith and Tifa had done some rough math and given everyone a birthday with the made up calendar they still used, as something for them to occasionally celebrate and try to find some joy in their situation.

 

Tifa may have been more years gone than anything, and sometimes on birthdays Aerith got this far away look in her eyes, but it was something that they all clung to. And here was Yuffie's coming back around after a year and it was following the worst night of her life in recent memory. "And," she sniffled, maybe playing up the level of pathetic she was feeling just a tad, "it's  _ cold _ ."

 

Leon was silent. Yuffie was tired. She felt herself drifting towards the edge of sleep again when he finally snapped, "move over."

 

The bed was much smaller than she remembered. Where once it easily accommodated a (roughly) nine year old and a teenager it now seemed overly full with a (roughly) seventeen year old and a questionable adult. Yuffie found herself pressed uncomfortably against the wall, nose first. They had done this plenty before,sleeping back to back like this but they were both more people than they were before. Leon's back had her pinned against the cool press of the wall and when she tried to shift she banged her knee against the wall. "I don't think this is gonna work," she mumbled, squirming until he relented some of the space and she could roll over on her other side, chest pressed to his back.

 

Leon had gone very still under her as she curled a hand over his shoulder. The shirt he wore to bed was old and worn and very soft beneath her finger,. "What are you doing?" He asked, voice stiff.

 

"This is better see, because now instead of there being this weird negative space between our legs, you have a big ass by the way, I can contour against you and not feel like I'm suffocating!" It was true that this way, nesting against his back left a little room on her other side so she could lean a bit away, but she was cold and he was warm and it was so very late. "Unless you'd prefer to be the big spoon?" She offered, grinning into his hair. 

 

This should probably bother her, she thought sleepily as Leon's lack of an answer hung between them. His hair was tickling her nose, and her other arm was already falling asleep beneath her, but he smelled like safety and felt like comfort on this chilly night and she let herself slide back into the realms of unconsciousness.

 

She woke some time later, painfully aware of her need to pee.

 

They had shifted in their sleep. Somehow Leon had flopped onto his back, managed to wedge an arm under her head and Yuffie woke to find herself pillowed on his chest. It was not the worse way to wake, and the steady  _ inhale-exhale-inhale _ of his breath and the  _ tha-thump-tha-thump _ of his heart against her ear was strangely soothing as she lay there, half awake just listening to the sounds of life beneath her.

 

But bladder won out and Yuffie squirmed, trying to slide over Leon's body without waking him only to fail miserably. She had one leg thrown over him and was just shifting her weight to follow, was practically hovering over his person when his eyes snapped open and his hands clamped down painfully on her hips. She winced, hissing between her teeth, "it's just me." The hands on her sides flexed but did not release their hold. "Sorry," she said, "I gotta go pee. Didn't mean to wake you."

 

It occurred to her that Leon might not be entirely awake at the moment, his eyes half lidded and the warmth of his thumbs becoming a burning heat against her skin. "Right," he said, voice thick with sleep.

 

They sat like that for another minute, Yuffie hovering over him, close enough to be aware of his morning breath and the occasional bump of her nose against his as she breathed and his thumb still touching (tracing a pattern now, when did that happen) against the jut of her hip. "Can I um... can you let me go?" she finally managed, swallowing and finding her throat clicking dryly.

 

He let go and she tried not to shiver at how cold the air felt against that spot as she finished crawling over him. Yuffie let herself out of the room, closing the door behind her without looking back.

 

Business taken care of, Yuffie decided there was probably not much point in going back to sleep (was afraid to crawl back into that bed, she was imagining things in the early morning, imagining a darkness to Leon's gaze that wasn't' there, it was juts an absence of adequate light. Get your head together, Yuffie.)

 

Toast was easy enough to prepare and without the theatrics that usually accompanied any attempt to make pancakes (twice she had set off the smoke detector. Twice and Cid had banished her from making anything more complicated than cold cut sandwiches, and wasn't that unfair? Sure, she had utterly ruined one of their two pans but even burnt her pancakes had been more palatable than some of the things Cid himself tried to make. Give him a tea kettle and Cid was your man, ask him to fry an egg and the world was doomed. Honestly, they were all fairly poor cooks, It was amazing that they hadn't offed themselves by accident yet, before the heartless could even get to them.)

 

What little sun Traverse Town got was starting to peek weakly over the wall as Yuffie took her toast and juice to the table, watching out the window and trying to be considerate of the other members of the house who were all still blissfully asleep (and utterly unbothered by the spot on her hip that was practically burning with memory of a calloused thumb pressing against her. She took a vicious bite of her toast to try and chase that particular thought away. It didn't help much but she did manage to choke on the toast as she let her mind wander unbidden to the sleep heavy gaze and the way Leon looked pinned beneath her.)

 

Cid was the first to rise, stumbling blearily into the kitchen, offering her a grunt of recognition. Yuffie smiled back, having learned the hard way not to engage in conversation with him until he had at least two cups of tea in him. She watched as he brewed himself a pot, downing the first cup still standing at the counter, taking a little more care with the second before joining her at the table. His eyes weren't quite open so Yuffie let him drink this cup in peace too, munching merrily on her toast and pleased to have something distract her from that itchy spot on her hip.

 

Cid was starting to show his age, and no wonder with everything they put him through, it was hard to tell but there were definite streaks of grey sprouting near his temple and shooting through the sparse hair on his chin. Yuffie felt a surge of affection for the grumpy old man, none of them would be here today if it weren't for his quick skills behind the wheel of a gummi ship.

 

"Yer staring," he grumbled into his third cup of tea.

 

"I am," Yuffie agreed pleasantly.

 

"Stop it."

 

"Gimme my present and I will."

 

He made a great show of slurping at his tea this time, pausing to add more sugar. Cid liked his tea progressively sweeter the more cups in he got. "Ain't got no idea what yer goin' on about." A pointed look away from her because they both knew he was helpless when she smiled at him.

 

"Cid," Yuffie sang.

 

"S'pose to wait til yer dinner." More noisy slurping of the tea. "I guess if you happen to  _ find  _ it though, say you went lookin' under the couch fer something, then I s'pose there ain't much I could do about it." Slurp went the tea, up when the Cid to start a new pot.

 

Yuffie didn't quite scream as she bounded from her chair but it was a very near thing. Her present barely fit under the couch and honestly it was something of a miracle that she hadn't wandered through and accidentally stubbed her toe on one of the ends poking out. It couldn't have been under there long- she didn't even have to dig, just pull on the exposed end, give it a little wiggle because it was kind of  _ around _ the support structures of the couch and then it was free and hers and she cooed or purred or chirped or made some animal like noise of approval.

 

In her hands she held what could only be described as _ Sir Stabbity 2.0  _ (she deserved a better name than that, but Yuffie was too awe struck by how  _ pretty _ the weapon was.) Bright and silver and shining, the edges so obviously sharp that Yuffie wondered if it were possible to cut your own vision, the long shafts wrapped in a soft leather leading down to the center ring etched with a series of runes.

 

"Got a healing spell built in," Cid said, toasting the weapon with fresh tea. "Can't take all the credit, I gathered the parts but the moogles put it together and Merlin, the old fart, put in the spell. He said it's got a bit of a recharge rate on it, but it'll do ya in a pinch in battle."

 

Yuffie gave the weapon an experimental twirl, half convinced she could hear it slicing the air itself apart. It was so light that she almost wouldn't believe she were holding a deadly tool if she weren't looking directly at it. "Cid," she said with feeling, "I love it. Thank you." She may have teared up a little, or she may have just gotten something in her eye, she'd never confess either way.

 

Cid shifted in the kitchen, busying himself with cleaning up the supposed mess from his tea. "Just put it down before you try to hug me or something. Rather not lose a hand because of my own damn oversight."

 

She did, put it down that is, before launching herself across the kitchen to squeeze him tightly at the ribs. Cid chuckled, petting her hair. "Glad you like it, girlie."

 

"Thorn," Yuffie said against his chest. "her name is Thorn and I don't just like her, I  adore her. She's my new best friend, don't tell Aerith though it'll hurt her feelings."

 

"Oh I don't know," said Aerith from the hallway. "I keep chasing you out of the bedroom, maybe I deserve to be replaced." She stepped into the kitchen, a look of mock disapproval on her face. "I thought present time was supposed to be after dinner?"

 

"Found her all on my little lonesome," Yuffie grinned, spinning Thorn around (not in the living room, groaned Aerith right before Yuffie took out a potted plant.)

 

"Well little miss finder, just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you shouldn't bother making your bed, even if you didn't sleep in it." The wink Aerith tossed out was encouragement enough for Yuffie to see just what she meant by that statement.

 

Half tucked under her pillow, another sign that everyone she loved was as impatient for present time as she was, lay a book. The cover boasted a woman with fiery red hair and a steely gaze in full plate armor, the words  _ Swords & Shields vol 3  _ scrawled in the space above her head. Yuffie barely covered a scream of delight.

 

Things from other worlds slipped through sometimes, when nothing else from the world survived, and several months ago she had found the first two volumes of this series. They were smutty romance novels and only Aerith knew of her secret enjoyment of them. Yuffie made sure to hide it under her pillow again, no reason to give Leon or Cid more ammunition to tease her about something, before she ran full tilt into the kitchen to catch Aerith up in a bone crunching hug.

 

Aerith gave a yelp of delight, squeezing Yuffie's hand where it lay around her waist. "you're very welcome," she laughed in response to Yuffie's wordless thanks.

 

She managed to sit still long enough for Aerith to ply her with an actual breakfast and wheedle out an answer for what Yuffie wanted for dinner. Birthday dinners were always a special affair, whatever meal the birthday person wanted no questions or complaints from anyone else. "Curry buns?" Yuffie asked, hopeful.

 

Aerith sighed, "you would pick something complicated. Fine, but you have to promise not to hate me if I ruin them."

 

"Aer," Yuffie said with some feeling, "I could  never  hate you."

 

After stuffing herself full of pancakes Yuffie picked up Thorn, insisting she wanted to take her new toy for a test run, and managed to shove her new book in her hip pouch. There wasn't room in there for anything else, so she sent a silent prayer to anyone who might be listening to please make sure she didn't get eaten by heartless because she wanted to enjoy smut in peace.

 

"Be back for dinner!"

 

She circled around towards the Third District, her intent two fold. For one, she needed to stop by Merlin's to say thanks for the beautiful enchantment he had placed in Thorn, and while she knew he could be reached through the Second District the idea of crawling through the sewers did not appeal to her. And for two, there was no better place to test Thorn than the the Third District, even when the rest of Traverse Town was quiet and devoid of heartless Third District could always be counted on to have some slinking shadow or another waiting to taste her steel.

 

Yuffie whistled to herself as she went, spinning Thorn lazily around her finger. The day was unfolding in front of her, long and cool. What little sun Traverse Town boasted was already on it's descent, familiar stars winking to life overhead (and she did not look up, did not count the holes between, the way the heavens seemed stretched thinner every day. Sora was doing good work, there was no question about that, but the darkness was hungry and mean and moved faster than one young boy.)

 

She stepped into the courtyard that greeted all visitors to the Third District, the exit to the First at her back and line of sight on Merlin's door straight ahead. Nearby the district's fountain burbled merrily. Nearby she heard the hiss of electricity from the slightly broken power line.

 

Nearby she heard the telltale hiss of darkness pulling itself bodily into this world. Yuffie smiled as she twisted, Thorn becoming an extension of her arm, and loosed her shuriken into lamp bright eyes. 

 

#

 

Merlin gave her an additional present, well two, if you count the sopping outfit she was now squishing about in because he thought the best way to get to his stupid little cottage was via moving, moss covered stones (he dried her clothes with a quick flick of his wand and promised to see her safely back across) but the actual second present was a bag of brightly colored sweets. "Nothing fancy," he said, stroking his beard, "there shouldn't  _ be  _ any side effects as I had no intention for them beyond a treat." And she thanked him a little less profusely for that and tied them hesitantly to the pouch at her waist. 

 

The fairy godmother, Dorabella, if Yuffie remembered their brief introductions, surprised her with a gift of her own: a minor spell that attached to her hip pouch, something Yuffie never left without "to help you move just a tad quicker, I'm sure that will come in handy." and had given a strange wink and Yuffie decided that she had enough of hanging out with strange old magic wielders in strange cottages for the day and left immediately. 

 

Next to First District where she made the proper thanks to the moogles and even resisted cuddling them (although that wasn't fair and it was so hard and it was her birthday didn't she deserve birthday cuddles?) and wedging her newest ill begotten book under the loose shingle on top to the Accessory Shop.  The moogles were probably aware that she stored her goods there, she had come out one day to discover all her books wrapped tight in an oil cloth; but no one spoke about the matter one way or the other so she just continued to add to her hoard- sneaking out to read a couple of chapters whenever she got the chance. 

 

Then down into the shop proper where the shopkeeper was on pretty good terms with them, having asked Cid more than once to cover the counter for him. It only took a couple of minutes of innocent batting of the eyes and mentioning the magic words  _ it's my birthday _ and Yuffie was walking out with a new, free, silver ring that complimented that spell Dorabella gave her quite nicely. 

 

She knew better than to try and get away with anything like that with the triplets running the Item Shop. They must have taken extensive notes from their misery old Uncle Scrooge,  _ nothing _ in their shop was free even on her birthday. They did graciously offer a forty percent discount on anything she bought "today only," warned the green capped one. Right before she left the one in the red cap stopped her long enough to say, "tell you what, next thing you come in here to sell to us we'll pay wholesale price for it."

 

His smile may have been just a touch on the evil side. Everyone knew Yuffie had a penchant to pick up any remotely shiny thing and immediately turn around and sell it for change which meant she had to make sure her  _ next  _ shiny thing was worth the glimmer. 

 

It was a strangely productive day. Yuffie made it home in plenty of time for dinner, sweaty and covered in a fine layer of the peculiar ash left behind by heartless and was promptly barred from the kitchen and sentenced to the bathroom to clean up. She stopped long enough to lovingly nestle Thorn in her bed, polishing the blades and scraping the grime out from the edges of the leather wraps. She stopped short of kissing the weapon good night, although the thought was tempting.

 

Leon was nowhere to be found. 

 

She told herself that didn't matter as she got in the shower; letting the too hot spray sluice the ick of the day off and ease the tension in her shoulders she hadn't even realized was building. Thorn was beautiful but weighted slightly different and it would be a couple more days of practice with her before Yuffie could be entirely confident in her skills handling her. The hot water felt nice- like a present to herself after a day of doing only what she wanted and she stayed under the spray until the water ran all the way icy- she knew for sure when she shut the cold tap off and the water refused to budge a degree upwards. It may have been petty but she silently hoped that wherever Leon was he would come home and have to take a freezing shower. 

 

He wasn't at dinner either. Yuffie asked after him. Casually, or at least she thought so, running a finger through the condensation left by a glass of water on the counter and not making eye contact with anyone when she said; "Where's Leon?" 

 

But they must have read something in those two words and everyone went a little stiff in the shoulder and Cid grumbled something about who can keep up with these damn kids these days and Aerith loudly proclaimed dinner was done. 

 

Aerith's curry buns came out practically perfect, a couple were a little burnt and she clucked and fussed and Yuffie made sure to eat those first, scalding her mouth even as Cid snorted over his plate. Everyone ate until they could barely move and Cid complained that if they kept eating this well he'd have to let let his pants out a bit. 

 

"You could start wearing dresses," Yuffie suggested. She reached across the table for one of the last buns. In truth, she didn't think she could eat another bite without throwing up but Aerith had made a noise about wrapping them up for Leon when he got back and that petty feeling from earlier had just been rolling around her gut and gained traction and turned a bit vindictive so she forced another bun into her mouth. 

 

They weren't a family, they were a handful of people forced together by circumstances but damn it they were all each other had, all  _ she  _ had, and usually they made a point of spending these not actual birthdays together. 

 

She was stopped from devouring the last two buns by Aerith's hand, warm and gentle on top of hers. "You seem anxious," said Aerith with a smile. 

 

Yuffie blinked. And then lied through her teeth. "Thorn and I still got a lot to work out together and the day's still young!" It wasn't, it was late enough that she should consider turning in sooner rather than later, but nervous energy was as good an excuse as any. 

 

Aerith kindly wrapped the last of the buns for Yuffie to take with her. "Don't stay out too late." She was pulled in for a hug and Aerith whispered, "if you read this late at night sit closer to the tavern so you don't ruin your eyes."

She really wasn't in the mood for more target practice, her arm already ached from the long day of it. But she dutifully picked Thorn up, making a great show of false enthusiasm as she moseyed out the door, asking Aerith if she was sure she didn't want to come along. "See this baby in action?" 

 

Aerith laughed and Yuffie hoped she would never grow tired of that bell like sound, decided right then that if a day ever came where the sound of Aerith's laugh didn't make her heart stutter in joy then she would punch herself in the face. "There's plenty of time for me to see you in action, I'm sure. Go, enjoy your birthday. I know you're getting too old to spend the whole day at home with us old folks." 

 

She wanted to say  _ never  _ but the absence of Leon was starting to ache like a sore tooth and she'd hate to start fighting with him today, when they had been doing so good. So she kissed Aerith goodbye and suffered a ruffle of the hair by Cid and disappeared back into the night. 

 

Yuffie stuck to the roofs, climbing around chimneys still smelling of soot and ash, picking her way over windows with maybe a touch extra noise just to hear the children inside gasp and call out  _ what's that _ ? Then it was an easy hop over the wall separating the the districts and a short walk across the exposed beams of some long forgotten building to leap to her favorite bolt hole: the top of the Accessory Shop. 

 

She gave Thorn a place of honor against the chimney, pried up her loose shingle and dug out her newest volume of Swords and Shields and, per Aerith's instructions, angled herself to catch a little extra light from the nearby tavern even if the position was already making her back ache. 

 

The volumes were short, painfully so, and the author had a penchant to leave everything hinging on a cliff hanger. Several times Yuffie had almost tumbled off the roof due to a nasty habit in which she would lean towards the book, caught up in the emotions, have to lean the book away from her because it was too close to read, and then follow to lean in closer a the next high point so she all but chased herself out of her perch (and wouldn't that be a story, limping home because the guard captain was finally taking strides to confess her feelings for guardsman Dorric, despite being his superior but it was such a big _deal_ would Aerith understand how important it was that the guard captain was finally able to lay her dead husband's memory to rest after so many years? Probably Aerith would care less about that and care more about whatever broken bones Yuffie would have accrued from sliding off the roof.)

 

She's startled out of her book by a pebble, thrown with a certain amount of accuracy to bounce off the lip of the chimney. It's a familiar enough warning, a friend approaching, please do not skewer whoever puts their head over the edge of the roof on the end of something pointy (and it only almost happened  _ once  _ and it's not her fault that Leon just can't let things go.) Yuffie had enough time to cram her book back in its hiding place. It's in at a bad angle though and she can't get the shingle down over it so she settles for shifting until she's sitting on it and ye  _ gods  _ that was a terrible idea, the edge is poking her hard in the thigh. She manages to paste on a pleasant enough expression in anticipation of who has come to visit. 

 

Because she knows. It's not Aerit or Cid. Both of them would just stand down there and shout up at her until she deigned to answer or they gave up in frustration. There's no way in all the worlds it could be Sora because she would have heard him jangling or shouting from a mile away (and besides, he may be saving the universe but she doubted his ability to toss a pebble like that with any sort of accuracy and not have it come careening back to smack him in the face.) 

 

Leon peeks his head over the edge and Yuffie clenches her knees even as she tries to turn the wattage of her smile up another degree or ten. 

 

"I didn't forget." The first thing he said in way of greeting. 

 

"Forget what?" 

 

He sighed. "Yuffie. I'm sorry I wasn't at dinner." 

 

Yuffie laughed and the sound is too loud in the night, bright and brittle and telling. She stretches, refusing to move off her damning book. "Oh you weren't? I didn't even notice. Been a long day and man was I was  _ starving.  _ You missed a good meal though, Aer really outdid herself this year." 

 

There's something draped over his shoulder that she only notices as he pulls himself full on the roof. She doesn't like Leon being up here. This is her space, a sanctuary carved out for her by her, even the moogles finally stopped complaining about her roosting above them and he's the only one who dares break the sanctity of the place she's made  _ hers. _

 

He holds the thing out for her and she sees now: it's a blanket. Her hands reach for it automatically and it's soft, knitted in lurid shades of green and yellow it's almost painful to look at but it's soft and big, big enough for her to drape around her entire body and still have room to puddle at the edges of her person. 

 

It doesn't make sense. "Did you... knit me a blanket?" She pulls the edges shut so she's just a Yuffie head hovering over a lump of neon colors. There's probably a metaphor in there somewhere, but she's still in awe at how  soft the damn thing is.

 

It's hard to tell in the low light but Leon looks like he might be a tad embarrassed. "Not exactly. A couple of months ago Traverse Town got a new resident, the Widow Tweed remember?" 

 

She did, but only vaguely. Older lady, she remembered that, prone to smiling too much. Had made cookies for everyone. Yuffie had meant to stop in and visit with her when she got the chance because  _ cookies  _ but things seemed to keep cropping up. 

 

"I was making rounds one day," Leon explained. "And she pulled me aside, had some concerns because she heard something rattling around her roof the night before. I was pretty sure that was just you stomping through but I went ahead and checked everything out for her."

 

Yuffie gives her a mental pat on the back for not objecting to the whole  _ stomping _ comment. "She was grateful and next thing I knew I was having weekly tea with her. She decided she wanted to make something for me and..." Leon looked away, scratching at his ear. 

 

"I didn't need anything," he mumbled. "But I knew your blanket was getting pretty thin." 

 

Something bubbled in Yuffie's chest. It might have been the three too many curry buns. It might have been something else. Whatever it was expanded until she couldn't contain it anymore and her face split into a grin so wide it hurt her cheeks. "You had her make me a blanket." 

 

"She was going to make something anyway," snapped Leon, still not looking at her. 

 

Yuffie looked down at the mess of fabric. It was warm and she let it drape off her shoulders to keep from overheating, poking a finger through one of the holes in the weave, marveling as it closed back up when she removed the digit. Stretchy. "So that's where you were today?" 

 

Leon looked back at her now, expression dour and furrow firmly planted between his brows. "She treated me to tea while she finished up. I couldn't get away." 

 

"Leon," Yuffie said and managed to keep her voice appropriately neutral with just a hint of affection. "Thank you."

 

He shrugged. "You should stop by and tell her thanks, she's the one that did all the real work." Then, under his breath as if he didn't want her to hear, "I just picked the colors." 

 

She was going to ruin it if she said anything else, could feel the threat of teasing him building up so Yuffie settled for burying her face in her new, soft, beautiful, blanket and giggling. 

 

"There is one more thing," said Leon and when she looked up she wished she had the ability to spontaneously combust. 

 

He was holding out  _ Swords and Shields vol 4 _ . 

 

She didn't move for it, cold dread swirling in her stomach. "Did Aerith tell you?" Heat slid across her shoulders in embarrassment and the whole cocktail of emotions was heady and Yuffie suddenly wasn't so sure she wouldn't throw up. Aerith wouldn't tell, that would be cruel and mean and petty and Aerith was none of those things.

 

Leon seemed to agree because he snorted, a rare sound for him to make. "Please, you're not as sneaky as you think you are." He wiggled the book at her. "It's the next volume right?" 

 

She still didn't take it. "You're not going to make fun of me?" 

 

He frowned again but it wasn't Leon's usual  _ why must I be cursed to this existence  _ frown, it was softer at the edges, didn't make the scar between his brows pucker so drastically. "Why would I?" 

 

Yuffie pulled her knees to her chest, curled her arms around her legs and leaned her head forward. "Because it's a silly romance series, what's not to make fun of?"

 

"Yuffie," and the gravity he imbues in the letters comprising her name is enough to make her look up without thinking, heart in throat. "It makes you happy doesn't it?" 

 

She nodded, struck mute for once. 

 

"Then there's nothing to make fun of." Leon looked up, up, up at the sky much like she had earlier and she could see his gaze tracing the holes in the sky. "We don't have much. If you can find something to bring a moment of happiness to your life, then you should hold on to it. None of us will make you feel bad about it, promise." 

 

She took the book and though it wasn't any thicker than the previous volumes it felt somehow heavier in her trembling hands. "Thank you," she said again. It seemed a paltry reply for the gifts, for his words, but she couldn't seem to catch her breath and besides what did you  _ say  _ when someone like  _ Leon  _ had the gall to look so vulnerable while spouting things that made her feel all funny? 

 

He stepped back, already descending down the little ladder on the side of the shop. "Enjoy," he said, then he was gone and she could hear his boots, solid on the cobblestone. 

 

"Leon!" She called, leaning over the edge of the roof, book clutched in one hand and blanket still pinned to her shoulder with the other arm. "What about you, do you have something that makes you happy?" 

  
Something passed over his face and if he were anyone else she would have said it was a smile but this was Leon and the night was already too weird so it had to be a trick of the light. "Yeah," he said. "I do." 

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a little 1k thing back in November, for Yuffie's actual birthday. It spiralled and kept going even as I held on for dear life kicking and screaming and demanding it stop, stop NOW. 
> 
> I really just wanted to stupid scene right there at the end with the blanket and the book but no, everyone in this stupid piece demanded some sort of Plot.
> 
> The books Yuffie is obsessed with is a fictional series from Dragon Age that one of the characters actually writes. It's supposed to be pretty trashy and poor quality, according to the author himself. 
> 
> The Widow Tweed is from Fox and the Hound.


End file.
